Here Fidel Castro is seen smoking a Cuban cigar and wearing two Rolex watches in the Kremlin while he chats with Khrushchev, in front of a Karl Marx picture. The non-verbal body language in this photo is absolutely fascinating. Notice everybody in the r…
Ferenc Szálasi was the leader and all-powerful head of the fascist Arrow Cross movement, the regime that came to power in Hungary with the armed assistance of Nazi Germany on October 15-16, 1944. After that date, the fate of hundreds of thousands of Jew…
Female snipers of the 3rd Shock Army, 1st Belorussian Front. The 'Shock' armies were created with the specific structure to engage and destroy significant enemy forces and were reinforced with more armored and artillery assets than other combined arms armi…
Yakov Dzhugashvili, Stalin's elder son, served in the Red Army during the Second World War, and was captured, or surrendered, in the initial stages of the German invasion of the USSR. There are still many contradictory legends in circulation about the d…
The socialist fraternal kiss became famous via Erich Honecker and Leonid Brezhnev, who were photographed exercising the ritual. During the festivities of the 30th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic of East Germany in 1979, photographer Regis …
Vasily Blokhin is recorded as having executed tens of thousands of prisoners by his own hand, including his killing of about 7,000 Polish prisoners of war during the Katyn massacre in spring 1940, making him the most prolific official executioner in record…
Berlin after the War was a post-apocalyptic world. One of the largest and most modern cities in Europe was left a wasteland. There were vast piles of rubble everywhere. Other areas were rows of building walls with collapsed interiors — the skeletons of …
The embassy is an official state function and since the Third Reich outlived Hitler by six weeks, it would be odder if they did not raise the flag when the head of state died. Actually, Hitler's death wasn't officially announced until May 1st, but the O…
A somewhat odd photo and not terribly exciting unless you are aware of the details. Harold Agnew’s smile sort of disconnects the viewer from the reality of the situation. That box is the direct cause of the deaths of approximately 70,000 people. That li…
All these German prisoners of war were captured following the Falaise Pocket battle. By the evening of 21 August 1944, the pocket had been sealed, with c. 50,000 Germans trapped inside. Many Germans escaped but losses in men and equipment were huge. The…
Germany deliberately starved occupied Soviet territories by plundering their food for German use. This was the "Hunger Plan", which starved to death millions of people. It was in part a practical decision to have German forces live off the land, but it …
The searchlights in this photo aren't intended for the use of the crews running the lights. Their purpose is helping the anti-aircraft gunners spot incoming bombers. And the anti-aircraft gunners aren't located at the lights. The glare from light reflec…
Matthäus Hetzenauer was an Austrian sniper in the 3rd Mountain Division on the Eastern Front of World War II, who was credited with 345 kills. His longest confirmed kill was reported at 1,100 meters (3,600 ft). Hetzenauer was also a recipient of the Kni…
Simo Häyhä, also known as "The White Death," was a Finnish sniper who is credited with killing 505 enemy troops within 100 days during the Winter War against the Soviet Union from 1939 to 1940. Simo Häyhä's involvement in the Winter War was very extraor…
Heinrich Himmler looks at a young Soviet prisoner of war during an official visit to Shirokaya Street Concentration Camp in Minsk, Belarus, on or about August 15, 1941. You had to be a hard man to look Himmler in the face like that. This is standing for…
German cavalry firing from the standing saddle position during maneuvers on the Karshorter Racecourse, Berlin. The cavalry was trained to "fire from the saddle" in this way at that time. It is very doubtful whether this method featured much, once the ac…
These kids had no idea what kind of hell was about to be unleashed on them. They're literally marching to hell. It's kind of eerie looking at the men in this picture and realizing that statistically speaking, they most likely never saw 1944. Those sungl…
Aleksandra Samusenko, born in 1922, was a member of the Soviet armed forces who fought during the Winter War in Finland and during the Great Patriotic War. After successfully finishing the tank academy, Samusenko received her Order of the Red Star when …
The head of Poland Józef Piłsudski died on May 12, 1935. His funeral was made a few days later in Warsaw. But in Berlin, there was a service for Piłsudski ordered by Adolf Hitler. In the picture, you can see Adolf Hilter during the service for Piłsudski…
Joseph Goebbels awards the 16-year old Hitler Youth member Willi Hübner the Iron Cross for the defense of Lauban, photo taken on March 1945. Despite the extremely limited nature of the victory, the recapture of Lauban was presented as a great success by…